


Fall Away

by Riddle



Category: Skeleton Clique - Fandom, Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Angst, Coma, Hospital, Injury, Sickness, Trauma, hurt comfort, some fluff after some angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-15
Updated: 2017-03-24
Packaged: 2018-07-15 04:02:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7206956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Riddle/pseuds/Riddle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On the last leg of their most recent tour, Tyler makes a wrong step climbing down from some scaffolding during a preformance and falls to the ground landing himself in a coma. He must find away to wake himself back up before everyone he knows and loves gives up hope on him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“The storm is letting up,” said one of the stagehands after briefly listening to a weather bulletin in his earpiece “You boys should start getting ready.”

Tyler smiled. He had been worrying about the fans through the worst of the storm. The ticket promised they would go on rain or shine, but the open stage was getting drenched and they were forced to postpone. At first it had been suggested that they do a rain check and reschedule the show, but the venue wasn’t happy about that and Tyler and Josh both knew that there were fans that had made special time for them that day and had come insane distances to see them. That wasn’t an option. 

Josh broke off from Tyler and went off to his own dressing room to change into his opening costume and fix his make up. Tyler did the same in his own room, first putting on his classy red suit and then applying his black body paint to his hands and neck.

When Josh came back in he was dressed in the same suit and had his eyes highlighted in red and his hair styled wildly. 

“The things we do for aesthetics.” Tyler laughed looking at both of their reflections in the mirror 

“Art demands that we give and we give.” Josh chuckled fixing his tie one last time 

They could hear MuteMath finishing their last song of the night through the walls of the venue and they knew that that was their cue to get ready and set up the stage. 

There was a knock at the door and another stage crew worker in all black came in. 

“Just letting you boys know that we’ve got most of the stage cleaned off and dried up and the audience is slowly being ushered back in.” 

“Sick.” Tyler said situating his red beanie on his head. These really were ridiculous outfits but it certainly made him feel in character. He would gladly wear a hundred silly outfits though if it meant something and if it enhanced their creation. 

A few minutes later yet another crew worker—this one particularly official looking—came to get them and led them to the stage. 

Through the thick curtain that had put up over the stage they could both hear thousands of voices chanting for them in the audience. Tyler felt a happy flutter of butterflies in his stomach. Before a show after all, there are two things he never wanted to be: bored or nervous. This was the perfect middle. 

“Alright lets hit it!” Tyler said and with that signal, the opening to HeavyDirtySoul started playing over the near by industrial speakers. 

Josh went out first and took his place at his drums and just as the curtain fell, Tyler lurched out onto stage spitting out the first strain of lyrics, Josh’s drums banging and echoing inside of his chest. 

They proceeded through their set list in a way that should never be described as ‘like clockwork’. Tyler never wanted to feel like he was going through the motions and tonight was far from that fear, he felt alive and near to the point of delirium. 

Josh and him never did this for approval or fame, but there was something undeniably indescribable about hearing a stadium of people singing your lyrics back to you and screaming and jumping with every beat and base hit. 

Once during Fairly Local he felt himself slide on a puddle of water on the stage but found that he had no problem recovering. 

He nearly wiped out again during the drop and the jump in Lane Boy but again seemed to effortlessly land back on his feet as steady as ever. 

It was like nothing in the world could touch him, he was unbreakable. 

Car Radio began Tyler could feel pride swelling in his chest. He saw all of these people looking up at him, singing his words, understanding his meaning and he felt that feeling of finally having purpose. He wanted to give them a show they would never forget. 

Right as the instrumental began Tyler grabbed onto the scaffolding on the side of the stage and started to pull himself up rung by rung. His grip was so tight and so secure that he didn’t even think about the water on each strip that was slowly loosening his grip and lubricating his tightly coiled fingers. 

By the time that he had made it about twenty feet in the air he began to notice the group of security guards and personnel that were swarmed around the base of the scaffolding. They did not look happy and Tyler could tell they were there to get him down. 

He smiled looking out at the audience for just a moment—ignoring the angry guards below—gazing over the enormous crowds of people, feeling like a bird, free and blissful. 

He hit the last verse of lyrics flawlessly and hearing the music wind down he began to slide his left foot down just one rung. As soon as he felt the metal beneath his foot though, he knew something was wrong. His shoe didn’t grip the metal and he felt his foot and his leg begin to slide backwards before it slipped briefly off the bar. He felt his heart pound a hard beat and his grip tighten as he pulled his body tightly back into the tall metal tower. 

He took a breath and moved his foot down again, making sure that his foot was firmly planted before he moved any weight onto it at all. 

That was the last moment where everything seemed all right.

Just as he loosened his grip to move down a level, a boom of thunder exploded overhead and his mind went blurry and blank. 

The shock tore through him quickly and like a surge of electricity. His mind wasn’t focused on anything except for that brief moment of fear, and that, he soon realized was a problem. 

As he blindly reached out to grab the next rung he felt his fingers miss the pole and his body slide backwards, pulled down by the weight of gravity. 

It seemed only like a slip at first, but as his mind sharpened and he snapped back into clear focus he realized that his feet were no longer on the bar and his hands didn’t seem to grasp anything. He felt himself hit free fall and he plummeted down to the ground his arms pin wheeling behind him. 

He couldn’t even react or even register what was happening before he heard Josh’s voice screaming from the stage and a gasp from the audience as his limp body hit the hard stage surface with a hollow and deafening thud and he fell away into darkness.


	2. Chapter 2

Josh’s POV

Everything was chaos. 

Fans were screaming, sobbing, taking pictures and videos. Crewmembers pushed passed Josh as they ran to the front of the stage in herds. The guards that had first sought to bring Tyler down were knelt next to him, Josh could tell if they were talking to Tyler or to themselves. 

He himself couldn’t move. He felt frozen. This wasn’t real. 

This had literally been his waking nightmare since Tyler started doing this stupid goddamn stunt. And now what used to just be a nightmare—a worst-case scenario kind of fear—was not only real but also seared into his eyelids. He saw it again every time he blinked: Tyler’s body hurdling down to the ground and landing, it was horrifying. 

As a drummer Josh dealt in vibrations, he learned songs by how they sounded when they resonated in his chest, he learned to feel and remember that same way. Now, all he could remember was the tremor that shook the stage when Tyler collided with the floor. It wouldn’t go away.

The only thing that shook Josh out of his trance was a scream off to the side of the stage. Jenna. 

She stood shaking just off stage her eyes locked onto Tyler’s twisted body. She screamed again before she ran to his side. 

Josh couldn’t ignore that. He got up and he ran like hell. 

Jenna was already by Tyler’s side when Josh got there. She was down at his side sobbing and begging him to open his eyes, while stroking his face tenderly. 

EMS personnel burst onto the stage next, it was all a blur and Josh couldn’t even describe all of what they did even if he tried. But they seemed to check him and eventually lifted him up and placed him on a gurney, wheeling him out of view. 

Josh and Jenna followed. Josh kept his arm around Jenna and could feel her convulsing and shivering. They were both in shock. 

As an ambulance pulled up Jenna finally found words and shouted “Will someone talk to us?!”

All of the workers turned to look and one with sympathetic eyes came over slowly while the rest tried to situate Tyler and move him into the ambulance. 

“Who are you two?” Asked the EMS tech 

“I’m his wife, Jenna,” Jenna said still shaking “This is Josh his best friend.” 

“Alright,” The woman said with a nod “Your husband has sustained severe traumatic injuries. We can’t know the full extent until we can get him examined at a hospital.”

“But…but he’s alive right?” Jenna asked a quiver in her voice.

“Yes.”

She burst out both a sob and a sigh of relief at the same time. Tears streamed down her face and her uneven breath made her tremble even more. 

“Are you riding with us or separate?” The ambulance driver asked Jenna

“With you.” Jenna and Josh said at the same time

The driver looked like he wanted to tell Josh that only family could come, but it was clear enough that he was just as much family as Jenna. They both climbed in. 

The driver was fast, but it still felt as though it was the longest ride Josh had ever taken. 

Some EMS techs worked quietly on Tyler checking various vital signs and hooking up an IV. Josh just vacantly watched. 

They saw a patient, but Josh couldn’t even process that on this bed in front of him was his best friend, pale, bruised, bloody, and as close to death as anyone would ever venture. 

Jenna sat next to Josh, her hand wrapped around Tyler’s limp fingers and her head bent down. She was mumbling under her breath, praying. 

A few times, Josh swore that he saw Tyler open his eyes but he was never sure. It might have just been the movement of the van or even just random muscle reflexes. Either way, he wasn’t responding to stimulus, which even Josh knew was bad. 

The arrival at the hospital ushered in more chaos as people came out shouting immediately. They quickly took Tyler away and as Jenna and Josh tried to follow they were escorted instead to a waiting room to talk to doctors and fill out form after form. 

Josh couldn’t help but feel useless. He was frustrated, scared as hell, and angry, but he couldn’t tell if he was angrier with himself or Tyler. He had let this happen, but Tyler had been selfish enough to do this in the first place. He had always been careful and lucky, but ultimately this risk always existed. Tyler had a family that loved him, a wife, and a best friend that all suffered in the case of an accident, and not once did he ever stop and think of what this might do to them. It was selfish. 

And yet, with all of his anger Josh couldn’t ignore the “why” in the situation. Tyler didn’t climb because he thought it was fun. He did it because he was a showman and it got people talking. Tyler didn’t have a malicious bone in his body, even if this was selfish and stupid, it was with good intentions and that was what made Josh the angriest. Even when he was being a selfish ass, Tyler was being thoughtful and open hearted and was caring about others before himself. 

He thought about that some more and ended up slamming his fist onto the table in front of him in the waiting room. Finally exploding his excess rage.

Jenna didn’t say anything but her eyes told him that she agreed. She was thinking the exact same thing. 

A few hours later, a doctor finally came out to see them, and he didn’t have a happy face on. 

“Mrs. Joseph?” He asked addressing Jenna first 

“Yes!” Jenna said nervously jumping out of her seat and running to meet him 

“Your husband sustained some very traumatic injuries in the fall,” he prompted “scans show us some severe head trauma and multiple bone breaks and major organ contusions.” 

Jenna stifled a sob while the doctor listed off these horrible things one after another. 

“We’ve also begun to see the beginning of bone bruising on the spine.” The doctor said bowing his head 

“What does this mean?” Jenna asked 

“It means that for now he is alive,” the doctor said placing a hand on her shoulder “but we don’t know for sure how the fall affected him beyond physical injuries, and we wont until he wakes up.”

“And when will that happen?”

“…W-well, we don’t know for sure you see,” the doctor said stalling for time “for the current moment, your husband is in a coma from his injuries.” 

“What is the worst case scenario?” Jenna asked 

“He dies.”

“The best? If he wakes up I mean.”

“If he wakes up it is likely that he will walk again as long as the swelling goes down, but we still wont know the extent of the brain damage until he’s up and talking.”

“Could he be alright?”

There was a long pause. 

“Miracles do happen.”


	3. Chapter 3

Tyler’s POV

To say that I felt like shit would be the biggest understatement in the world. 

I can still remember hitting the stage when I slipped and the crushing pain that radiated through my body on the impact. That was nothing compared to the pain that I felt watching Josh and Jenna inside that ambulance. 

I’ve heard things about surgery and other comatose patients before about “out of body experiences” and I guess that was what this was. I watched as I was taken away in an ambulance and I watched as my own wife and best friend cried over my body and begged to know if I was alive to dead. I watched as Jenna held my hand and prayed and as Josh sat silently wishing that I might move or wake up. 

I have to assume that I’m tied to my body some how (I really don’t know if there are rules to being your own ghost haunting your unconscious body but if there are to be honest I didn’t really care, I just knew that it was really weird) and when I was taken to surgery I was forced away from my sobbing wife with no way to comfort her or Josh. 

I had to watch as teams of surgeons set to work cutting me open and sewing and setting things back together. I had to watch their bleak expressions as they dug deeper and began to understand just how badly I was hurt, that set me into a full on panic. 

I had had panic attacks before, but this was something all together different because this time I might be locked away outside of my body away from anyone that could touch or speak to me until my family finally decides to let me die. This was a mental breakdown to end all mental breakdowns. 

After all of my surgeries had been done and my tests were all completed I was wheeled into an empty hospital room and left in sterile silence. 

I looked down on my own beaten and battered face in that bed and cursed myself until I couldn’t curse any more. The tubes and wires they had plugged into me made me seem more like a machine than a man.

I could hear Jenna and Josh outside the door talking to a nurse and as they came in I so desperately wanted to open my eyes and jump out of my bed to say “haha it was all a prank, wasn’t that so funny!” but I couldn’t, I couldn’t make this right no matter what I tried. 

They both entered with sullen expressions I could tell that seeing my like this caused them both excruciating pain.

Josh had his arm around Jenna, both of their eyes were tired and heavy looking and they had both been crying obviously enough. 

They took a seat and just sat silently not knowing what to do or say. But having them both there was enough for me, I wanted to talk to them obviously but seeing them was the next best thing. I just wished that I could have let them know somehow that I was there with them in spirit.

“Josh, I don’t know what to do,” Jenna said miserably “I feel like I want to say something but how would I know if he’d hear me?”

“People always say that unconscious people can hear, say something and even if he doesn’t at least you will have said it.” Josh said keeping his eyes firmly locked on my slowly rising and falling chest

Jenna took my body’s hand and for a moment I swear that I felt the warmth oh her hand in mine, my own spirit hand. My heart pumped an accented beat as I felt her warmth on me and tears poured to the surface of my eyes. 

“Tyler,” Jenna said softly “Please wake up, I need you. We all need you so much.”

“Yeah come on buddy,” Josh said laughing miserably “You can’t leave me to be the one to talk in interviews, you’re so much better at that than I am.”

I laughed back and felt myself wipe a tear from my cheek as I did. 

“Are his parents on their way?” Josh asked Jenna slowly after a moment of silence

“Yeah, I called a few hours ago when we first arrived, they should be here any minute.” 

My parents. How had I forgotten about my parents?! This might actually wreck them. 

“And Zack?” Josh asked 

“He’s coming up with them.” Jenna said before Josh nodded silently 

“God Damnit!” I screamed before erupting into tears at the thought of even more of my family—my own parents and brother forced to confront my near if not eminent death. What kind of brother and son puts their family into a position like this? I had been so careless and selfish and now everyone including myself was going to pay for it. Fuck. 

They stayed with me for a while longer before receiving a call and leaving to go receive my parents and bring them up. 

When they all arrived it was, as I feared. My Mom screamed and my Dad cried, Zack cried to and hugged both of them closely trying to keep them from falling apart right there. 

“What did the doctors say?” My mom asked in between manic sobs 

“That there was a lot on injuries,” Jenna said trying not to use the graphic words that the doctor himself had used that had sent her into a panic “And that we wont know everything until he wakes back up.”

“When will that be?” My Dad followed up quickly holding my hysteric mother tightly 

 

“They don’t know when,” Jenna answered slowly before allowing a second of silence and then desolately and quickly adding “or if.” 

Again I just wanted to scream. I could see any hope at all fading from my parent’s eyes and I could see the light inside of them all dim. I had done that. I could never take this back. 

I had screamed already before but this time I felt something different than last time. I was actually watching as my family and best friend began to give up hope on me and began to think of me as more dead than alive. I felt something like hot embers burning in my chest and it spread to my face and throughout my body, it grew so hot as I continued to think about what I had done that eventually I just shut my eyes forcefully and with all the energy that I could muster I screamed like never before in my life. I could actually feel my own voice shutter through myself and as I shrieked I smashed my fist into the table at my own bedside over and over before I realized the room had gone silent. 

“His hand moved!” Jenna shouted pointing to my arm

“Where?” my parents said in unison 

“There! I swear, I saw it move, his finger curled up into a fist.” 

They all looked dubiously at her and then back at each other flatly having obviously not seen and obviously not willing to raise their hopes enough to believe.

Feeling the pain scorching in my own tightly coiled fist I realized that I had done that. I had moved my hand. 

“Please Jenna, wait for me,” I said looking inquisitively at my hand “I’ll figure out how to wake up, I promise.”


	4. Chapter 4

Jenna’s POV

When you get married and they ask you about staying true through “better or worse” you never really think you’ll have to. It’s such a perfect moment and it feels like it will never end, you say: nothing bad could possibly happen as long as I am with you. 

Even once that euphoria dies down those words kind of hang in the air haunting you. I always thought those words meant through hard times in a normal everyday sort of way, not the watch your husband fall from scaffolding and fall into a coma kind of way. But here I am, on the worse side of better or worse. 

I walk out of the hospital room after a few minutes to get some air. I feel like I’m drowning and I simultaneously cant stop thinking and cant think of a single thing. I’m running in place away from and somehow into the same darkness. 

I get a drink of water and slam my back against the wall and slide down it until I’m knelt down with my knees tucked into my chest. I burry my face and let myself cry in a moment of weakness. 

Once I look up and wipe my eyes. I feel better. I take a breath and decide to keep on going. 

I find myself studying my hand next. I watch it waiting for it to shake or tremble. Once it finally does I see Tyler’s hand again in my head, I see it move and the fingers curl up. I open my eyes and find myself wondering if I had truly imagined the whole thing, or if it really had moved. 

The doctors had all told us that Tyler was highly unresponsive, and that the chances of him waking again were slim to none, so was I imagining it and just hoping to see him again? Or was he truly defying medicine and fighting like hell to wake up? I didn’t know. 

I stand up and pace up and down the hall for a little while longer replaying over and over in my head the image of his hand until the image goes fuzzy and I forget exactly how it happened. But it did happen. I know it did. Even if no one else saw, I did. I decide that quickly enough. Hope is better than no hope at all after all. 

I look down and hold my small golden cross necklace tightly in my fingers feeling it’s very shape press into my palm. 

Please Tyler.

I close my eyes and say a prayer silently before taking another deep breath, wiping away my tears again and heading back into the room to join the others. 

They are all silent when I arrive. But their faces tell their story. I feel my heart drop. 

“Jenna…” Josh says walking over to me and pulling me into a tight hug “I’m sorry.”

“Why?”

“Because this is my fault,” he says “I always told him not to climb, but he still did it and I stopped trying after a while…I never should have stopped trying.”

I can tell immediately that he’s been over thinking every thing just like me.

I just shake my head and pull him back into the hug. 

“What’s been happening?” I ask looking back around at everyone’s shattered expressions 

No one speaks. None of them want to. It confirms what I had suspected when I entered. 

“No…” 

“I’m so sorry Jenna.” Tyler’s mom says looking down at Tyler in the bed

“Please don’t,” I say “There’s still time for him to improve.” 

“Every doctor has told us the same thing,” Tyler’s father says dejectedly “No one thinks that he will wake up again…”

“But they can’t have tried everything already!?” I argue feeling my stomach twist into horrible knots “We have been here for less than 24 hours!”

“They’ve just gotten back the results from his brain scans,” Tyler’s mom says quietly afraid of her own words “They brought them in while you were out…and…and they say they havn’t found any activity to suggest that he’s still in there.”

At that she breaks down into tears again, and I can feel a pain so hot and so heavy and so sharp pierce my heart that I follow in suit and collapse into sobs on the floor. 

It’s not fair. That can’t possibly be right! I saw his hand move, I know I did. Surely I did. I saw it…didn’t I? I tried to replay it again in my head but that fuzz just came back and I couldn’t picture it just right anymore. Did it ever happen at all??

“But…his hand…” I breathe out my voice cracking and disappearing into the silence

“No one else saw it Jenna,” Zack says bitterly finally breaking his silence, but unable to tear his eyes away from his older brother “it couldn’t have been real.”

I hear real pain in his voice, he wants to hope desperately just like me, but he cant seem to let himself. 

“What will you do?” I ask almost a whisper 

His parents both look at each other and then look down. Without looking me in the eyes they both say 

“Let him go.”

My body goes numb and a shiver runs through me.

“When?”

“In two days.” His father says with tears in his eyes “At 10 pm.”

I lose my breath immediately. I wilt over like a flower, in absolute shock. I can’t process what I am hearing, I have just been told the time and day that my husband will die…what am I supposed to do with that information? 

After a while they all filter out slowly as Josh takes Tyler’s family out of the room to the cafeteria and leave me alone inside. 

The lights overhead are too bright and too sterile, the walls are blank and the whole room smells like rubbing alcohol and antiseptics. This is no place to die in. 

I move my seat over to Tyler’s bedside and I hold his hand so tightly that I can see the color change as his skin puckers. I squeeze a few more times just as a reminder that his heart was still pumping and that he still had blood moving through his body. 

“Tyler,” I say in a whisper “I don’t know if I am supposed to believe if you can heart me anymore, but please if you can, listen closely, Okay? Because this is more important than anything else in our lives.”

I watch his eyes hoping to see them flicker open, no such luck.

“Your parents think they’re making the right decision for you,” I prompt, “They want to let you go, but I don’t. I need you to stay, for me. But you can only do that if you wake up. Can you do that Tyler? Can you do the impossible and be amazing and…and just wake up!”

I watch my own hot tears fall onto his skin and I feel my heart breaking.

As I am sliding my own hand out from his, his fingers curl around mine one again, and this time they squeeze back. 

I scream. 

“Tyler!”

I lean in and wait for something, for anything. Just as the silence fades back and I feel my blood settle back into place I feel warmth on my shoulder, like a hand resting there for support. I look up and see no one behind me. 

For the first time since the fall, I feel myself let go of tears that were not caused by pain or by suffering but by joy. He was alive, he was in there somewhere and he was trying to tell me not to give up hope. 

Now I just had to convince everyone else not to as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! If you have any feelings or words about this chapter or about the story in general please comment and let me know! I love hearing from anyone who reads!


	5. Chapter 5

Tyler’s POV 

He had finally gotten through. He knew that for sure, he could see it in Jenna’s eyes. With one small gesture he had brought her over to his side, and with Jenna, he felt he could accomplish anything. 

Unlike Jenna though, Tyler had been in the room when his parents had spoken to that last doctor. He had watched first hand as the light faded out of their eyes and they gave up hoping that he would ever wake up again. It was haunting. 

But even so, he had been able to touch Jenna. He had felt her actual solid physical shoulder, and that was something to be hopeful about. As soon as he had done it he knew that it was important, just like after he moved his hand he felt a wave of exhaustion wash over him and a surge of dizziness struck him full force. Whatever it was that was letting him break through to the other side and communicate with his loved ones, he was starting to figure it out. It took a lot of energy, but it was possible to communicate and that was worth everything in the world. 

Just then Josh slipped in through the door and took a seat silently in a chair on the other side of the room. 

Tyler could tell immediately from Josh’s face that he was hiding. He had that look of a frantic and trapped animal behind his eyes. 

Josh pulled out his phone and stared at it for a few seconds before turning it on. 

Tyler snuck up behind him and peered over his shoulder as he opened a familiar sky blue App that Tyler knew instantly as Twitter. 

For a solid minute Josh just stared at the screen before pressing the compose button and then stalling for another solid minute of absolute silence. 

He sighed heftily before sitting up and leaning over his knees and typing ferociously with his thumbs in a steady and brisk pace. 

After he was done he read, and then reread his tweet over and over, Tyler couldn’t tell by looking at his face if he was happy with it or not. Why was Josh putting this much thought into a tweet, Tyler wondered, unless…

Tyler leaned in closer from behind Josh and took a closer look at the screen in Josh’s hands. 

‘@Joshuadun: As many of you know, Tyler is in critical condition tonight. His doctors, his family, and I all fear for his life. Keep him with you tonight. #Staystrong |-\’ 

It was just as he feared, this was Josh’s way of preparing their fans for his eminent death.

He watched Josh agonize over those few characters over and over for what felt like hours before his friend finally pressed send. 

Josh then set his phone down and closed his eyes, blinking in tightly and then bursting his eyes wide open and forcing himself to stare up the ceiling to keep away tears. 

Josh then picked up his phone after a minute and checked the tweet; it had blown up in just a matter of moments. 

He watched as Josh’s eyes read through the responses, going from left to right to left to right repeatedly as he read through the long list of fan’s replies. 

Tyler could make out a few as Josh furiously scrolled through them like clockwork.

“@cliquegurl08: NOO! Tyler please don’t leave us. You convinced me to stay alive for years, can’t I do the same for you tonight??” 

“@spookyjxmes: My thoughts and prayers are with you all. Stay strong, and stay alive please Tyler. It’s worth it, I promise!” 

“@mykitchensink: if you stick around, I’ll sing you pretty sounds. Find your way back to us Tyler. You’ve given me so much, let me at least give you hope.”

 

Tyler had to back away after only a few. He felt tears streaming down his face and he felt something shatter inside of him in one quick snap. 

Looking over at Josh, he wasn’t too different. His eyes had gone red and sad, and he had his hands up to his eyes rubbing away his own tears. 

He looked over at Tyler’s bed and seemed to try to look into his eyes. Tyler didn’t see how Josh could see passed the giant tubes plugged into his broken body, but Josh just seemed to see Tyler there uninhibited and peaceful. 

“Come on buddy,” he said with sorrow in his breaking voice “Its time for that miracle now. Its go time, now or never you know…”

He scrolled through a few more and then looked back at Tyler. 

“People always say we inspire them,” Josh said bleakly “That we saved their lives and gave them, reasons to live and to hope and to dream for a better future. If we really did do all that Tyler, we can’t just quit now, this is bigger than any of us.” 

Admittedly Tyler had been focused only on his family this past day—as one does—but hearing about their fans gave Tyler something new to fight for. 

“I once had a girl tell me that on the night that she planned to kill herself a friend just so happened to send her one of our songs. Figuring that it didn’t really matter what song she died to she put it on…” Josh said in a low whisper “It was one of ours—Truce.”

Josh took a breath and whipped his eyes.

“She showed me a tattoo of a sunrise and the words ‘We will try again’ that she got on her wrist after that night.” 

He just looked down at his clenched hands for a moment while he took long controlled breaths. He got up and came over to my bedside and put his flat hand on my knee.

“We’ve still got a lot of work to do,” he said knowing full and well that he was alone “So please, stay alive. Stay alive for me. But also for them…we can do so much more if you can just do that for us all.”


	6. Chapter 6

Josh’s POV 

He felt raw. 

Completely bare and open. Everything hurt and at the same time he felt nothing. It was the numbness that bothered him.

Reading everyone’s responses to his tweet made his heart ache. He just still couldn’t believe that this was real, and that this was happening. When he preformed with Tyler some nights it felt like they were on top of the world, invincible, immortal. Now all of that crumbled around him. 

He wanted to take a moment and remember the good times—he didn’t want to feel sad anymore—but any memory he could find just didn’t feel the same anymore. Everything was bittersweet now, like every moment together had been tainted. It just didn’t feel the same. 

On the surface and in his head he knew that things were hopeless—the doctors said so, and everyone else believed them. But deep down in his heart, he had this strange nagging feeling that some kind of miracle would happen. He couldn’t tell if he was being naïve or just stupid, but there was a reason he didn’t say everything in his tweet… If he had truly believed that everything was over and Tyler was gone, surely he would have said so, but instead he asked for hope. That was the only thing keeping him going right now. 

He heard a faint knock at the door and then Jenna slipped through the narrow crack and into the room. 

She held Tyler’s cell phone in her hand. 

He hadn’t had it on him when he fell, so looking at it so pristine and untouched almost felt like a lie. 

“I just got off the phone with Brendon.” She told him waving the phone around half-heartedly 

“What did he have to say?”

“Just that he heard what happened and that he’s sorry.”

Josh nodded his head quietly 

“He doesn’t know yet about the family’s decision…he told us that he was sure Tyler would make it through.”

With that she broke down and collapsed onto the nearest chair. 

“He said he would pray for Tyler.” She said gasping for air and sobbing still in the chair 

Josh knew that Brendon wasn’t a religious kind of guy but he knew that Tyler and Josh were, so that kind of sentiment meant a lot from him. 

Josh got up and pulled his chair over to Jenna, he wrapped his arm around her and didn’t let go until the tears began to subside. 

“Do you believe me about his hand?” Jenna asked abruptly looking directly into Josh’s eyes 

Josh wasn’t sure if he did or not, he hadn’t seen it after all—no one but Jenna had. But that feeling that things weren’t as bleak as they seemed and that there was still good to come wouldn’t go away. He just decided that maybe what she had seen, and what he was feeling was the same thing. 

“Yeah, I do.” 

“I keep replaying it in my head, I’m not even sure…or at least…I wasn’t…” she stopped for a moment trying to decide if she really wanted to say what came next “But Josh, I swear, I felt him around me when I was in his room earlier…I think he’s still in there.”

For a moment Josh felt confusion, but then relief. 

He almost laughed. 

“I thought I was the only one who believed that…” 

She looked up at him, bewildered. 

“Seriously?” She demanded 

“I’m not ready to give up on his Jenna.”

Josh couldn’t explain what happened next but suddenly the room felt warm. It was soft and comfortable, he had no reason to, but all of a sudden he felt excited…no he felt fucking elated. 

He felt himself smile for no reason and thinking that Jenna would judge him for being happy at a time like this he tried to avoid her gaze, but saw out of the corer of his eye that she was smiling as well. 

“Do you feel that?” He asked at a loss for words 

She nodded, a smile still on her lips. 

“Tyler?” she said out loud looking around the room frantically 

Josh started to look around too, for what he didn’t know. But it felt close. 

To his side he heard a muffled scream. It was so shrill and sudden that he jumped in his seat. 

He turned to see Jenna, her hand clapped over her mouth, eyes wide and arm out stretched pouting to the window on the far end of the room. 

Josh turned and felt the blood drain from his face. 

Almost as if preserved in between the plates of glass, he saw Tyler. 

It made no sense but he blinked and rubbed his eyes and when he looked back Tyler was still there. 

Jenna and he both shot out of their seats and over to the window. 

It was almost like he was on the other side of the window, but they were on the third floor so Josh knew that that was impossible. 

“Tyler…?” Josh felt the words rasp out of his throat saturated with disbelief 

Tyler nodded 

“wh-what?...how?!” Jenna shrieked reaching out and placing her flat palm against the pane of glass. 

Tyler look down at her hand and placed his on the other side. 

“Are you still alive?” Josh asked breathlessly 

Tyler nodded with a smile, pointing over to the bed in the room where he still laid unconscious and seemingly lifeless. 

‘They want to let you go Ty.” Jenna said looking away 

Tyler frowned and looked away as well, but just nodded solemnly. Josh could tell he already knew. 

“Can you hear us in there?” Josh asked pointing to the bed

Tyler nodded again with a smile 

“Oh my god.” Jenna breathed tears falling silently from his eyes and down her face 

“What can we do for you man?” Josh asked urgently “Like, can we help you in anyway.” 

Tyler seemed to think but just shrugged and then shook his head. 

“You’re going to come back to us right Tyler?” Jenna ordered more of a statement than a question or a request 

Tyler seemed to try and nod again, but suddenly he face twisted into a pained expression and his eyes filled with panic and confusion. 

“Tyler?!” Jenna yelled pressing both of her hands onto the glass “Are you okay??” 

He seemed to fall down to his knees, and grasp his chest. 

He looked up one more time with gloomy baffled eyes his face contorted and pained still but he took the minute to look back at Jenna and mouth the words “I love you.” Before, like a candle being blown out, his disappeared in a flicker. 

“What was that?” Jenna yelled turning to Josh looking for some kind of clarification 

“I don’t know, what happened at the end there?” Josh asked concerned 

He soon wished he hadn’t though, as the explanation that came, came in the form of the heart monitor behind them connected to his best friend suddenly going haywire shrieking and pulsating violently before flat lining altogether.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I have been away from this story forever, and I'm sorry I hate when fic authors do that, but I hadn't abandoned it completely and I am back now and dedicated to finishing out this story. Please let me know what you guys think of this and the chapters to come!

**Author's Note:**

> I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments! I do plan to continue and post more chapters fyi :)


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